Thursday, July 30, 2015

HANG ONTO YOUR BUTTS, this is gonna be a doozy. Probably a two-sie. This is like that time we went to Prague and made a list of all the things we wanted to do, and then did those things. Only with way less day-drinking.

Mike and Leah and their progeny pulled into town two Saturday nights ago, and I let Eleanor stay up for the occasion because it's not every day your cousin shows up.

The littles were like, Nice to meet you, charmed, I'm sure, etc.

Sunday morning, we just went to Kinsmen for a low-key morning to let the out-of-towners adjust, and to blow bubbles.

And to build sandcastles.

Sunday evening was the last day of the food festival, so we stopped by the weir to check out the pelicans

and then headed off to eat a bunch of noodles

deep-fried Mars bar

you know the drill.

Monday morning we went to the Berry Barn.

The saskatoons were peaking, and grew in massive clusters. You could pull them off by the HANDful.

We ate, just, so many.

And then we played on the playground because obviously.

And then we took pictures in the giant chair

and on the giant bear

because obviously.

And then we got waffles.

Because obviously.

Monday after naps we went to paddle in our little pool while it drained.

The girls got their hands on a boogie board and that's all they did for like half an hour.

Tuesday morning we went to Pike Lake.

You know. Did lake stuff.

Ate sandwiches out of doors.

Ate a lot of things out of doors, actually. Tuesday after naps everyone was still pretty wiped from the lake, so we hung around the back yard and the girls played on the neighbors trampoline until they had heat exhaustion, basically.

And then they played restaurant

and read books

until the food showed up

and then we gave those two sweaty, sandy monsters a cooling bath.

Wednesday! Wednesday we walked down to the splash park, stopping at the ice cream bus.

That's Eleanor's 'waiting for ice cream' face.

That's her 'eating ice cream' face.

Geneva got an empty cone that she was THRILLED about.

Frankie figured out where the goods were coming from, and that she was being shafted. Hello? I would also like one of the melty things?

Anyway. Splash parkers be splash parkin'.

Babies be babyin'.

Was it only Wednesday evening that we were back at the little pool again?

It must have been.

Because Thursday morning we went to the zoo.

And fed the deers.

And had a picnic.

And then Thursday evening we were at the little pool until it drained.

And thence to the park because summer evenings are LONG and the light lasts FOREVER.

Friday morning, our guests transitioned to the other family they have in town, and Eleanor moped all day ('I'll go to the pool, and I'll play with Jen [one of the lifeguards], but I won't have any fun.'). But we saw them again soon.

Monday, July 27, 2015

It RAAAAAAAINED today. Have I mentioned that Joel is gone for the week? And I'm like, It'll be cool, I'm used to doing like 36-hour stretches or whatever. But now he's gone for DAYS and I'm like, Ugh I have to gas up my own car, this is so lame. Anyway. The rain. Eleanor was painting, and I came to check on her and I was like, Why is everything like three colors.

And then I realized that all the colors in her tray were used up, and we had no plans for the morning anyway so we went on a shopping spree and bought her a whole new set, and a new coloring book, and she painted for HOURS.

The cousins texted to see if we wanted to join them down on Broadway after naps, and we had no other plans and it had stopped raining but was too cold for the pool and Eleanor will jump at any chance to see her cousins.

She will also always go to the Bulk Cheese Warehouse, and she will always stop for a treat if treats are being offered.

Look at those little snacklettes. Geneva's eating her baby cracker all like, Look at me, I'm such a big person to be eating a treat with all the other big persons.

One and a half days down, nobody's dead, everybody's clean and sleeping.

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Saskatoon is just, like, this magical place to live. We were walking to the splash park today, it's the first day in like a week that we haven't seen our cousins because ugh they have other cousins who also live here, and we were feeling a little bummed and mostly just going to the splash park because we had nothing else to do. But we were seeing a TON of dogs out and about, and I finally stopped a lady and was like, Is there a...dog...thing happening, or are there just a weird amount of dogs out today. And she was like, It's Pets in the Park today! And then we walked like another block and hey-o, dogs.

You perhaps cannot tell, but that is a dog obstacle course. Literally everyone in Saskatoon with a friendly dog was at the park this morning, and there were booths selling dog toys and live music and a concession stand and Eleanor played a round of horseshoes and won a sticker and THERE WAS FACE PAINTING OBVIOUSLY.

Eleanor had just petted a Dalmatian so she got her face dalmation'd in his honor.

That child petted so many dogs this morning. And a ferret. And a hairless cat.

'Why is he bald?'
'I dunno, some animals are just bald.'
'Like some people. Like my Papa. He has NONE hair! But we love him anyway.'

And I'm not sure I've conveyed Geneva's love of dogs, but she lost her tiny mind. Woohf! Woohf woohf!

Oh, did I not mention? We got her face painted, too. She sat so. still.

And eventually, Eleanor started to get stressed out by all the dogs, and to panic when a big one looked at her with his face, and we had to go home. But as we were leaving the grounds, we ran into A GIANT SUNSHINE WHAT EVEN IS HAPPENING.

Eleanor's mouth is full of carrot, so this picture doesn't convey her full and unhinged delight in the giant sunshine. Another day in Saskatoon, another marvelous thing happening.